Hotch Speaks
by barrani
Summary: Hotch has some things to say about his treatment from some of the authors. Why is he the bad guy in so many stories?


A/N So this fic was written out of my frustration with Hotch seemingly always cast as the bad guy in many stories. This world of the story works like this. There is an individual, the Senior fiction chief, who is a sort of go between between us the writers and the characters of our stories. A new version of the various characters are created, for every story we create. And now on with the story.

_The office of the Senior Fan Fiction Chief._

A knock on the door.

The young man sitting behind the desk calls out, "Enter."

A version of Aaron Hotchner walks through the door. "Sir, I have something I want to say. The other Aarons and I have been talking. And we don't think we have been given a fair shake by some of the writers in the fan fiction world."

"You don't, do you?"

"No sir. The other Aarons and I are getting a little pissed off that in so many stories, we are the villain. Not the villain in the sense that we go on a killing spree, but the villain in the sense that we always screw up with the person we love. We leave our pregnant girlfriend, often Prentiss, we say some callous thing, we aren't ready for commitment, we use someone for comfort sex, again often Prentiss. We have a one night stand and then stop talking to the person afterward, we chase the one we love away. It's always _us_ making the mistake. Why can't _Prentiss_ make the mistake, or _JJ_, or any of the others you pair us up with? What did we do to get on everyone's shit list?"

"You know that fan fiction is many people expressing many ideas. There are only so many stories you can tell. From a certain perspective there are only twelve stories that can be told. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again. And that continues with the various combinations, boy and boy, girl and girl, and girl and boy. So the stories where you are the villain is one of only twelve story lines. It's perfectly natural that there would be many stories where you are the villain."

"Yes sir, but we are the only villain, or at least by far the most common villain. Why is it always us losing the girl or boy?"

"Are you saying that you would never do these things?"

"We're a good guy. Yeah the thing with Haley was bad, but it wasn't entirely our fault. We were people who grew and changed, and with that change came separation. But that doesn't make us a bad guy."

"You know Haley is often portrayed as the villain in that particular story line. Frequently she cheated on you, which was implied by the show itself. Do you think she deserves to be the villain?"

"No. It was a messed up situation. There is a lot of blame to go around."

Hotch starts pacing. "Ignoring the Haley thing, there are lot of other mistakes we are portrayed as making that we would never do. We would never abandon a woman we got pregnant. It goes against everything that we are as a human being. Not only because as man we were raised in a generation that ignored things like love and married the women they knocked up. But also because we are a stand-up guy. We are already a father, so why would we abandon our kid?"

"Some of the authors have used your protecting of Jack as a reason for your reluctance to be there for your other child."

"That insults me and Jack. It implies that Jack is selfish. And that I am a coward and a person with no moral fiber."

The Chief looks at Hotch with a questioning eyebrow.

"Some of the stuff that they have me do is plausible. Making a callous statement is a little tricky, we might do that. But everyone does that, it's not like we have the monopoly on that. So we are almost OK with that, but we would be far more OK if you portrayed others doing the same thing."

"We all hurt the ones we love, that's true."

"The ready for commitment thing, we were made for commitment. There is no way we would sleep with a woman if we were not ready for commitment. The only possible way we would do it, is if both parties knew at the beginning what the score was, that it was no strings sex, or whatever. But the other party would have known where I was, and would have made a conscious choice."

"Thereby absolving you of any guilt?"

"That's not what I said. I'm just saying in that situation. I'm not the bad guy. It's ..."

"Bad luck? Bad timing? Unfortunate?"

"Yeah."

"What about comfort sex?"

"The comfort sex thing, is something we might do. We are a guy after all. But like I just said, the other party would know that's all we can offer, or all we want to offer. We can't help it if they fall for us. It's not our fault we are so loveable." Hotch smiles a charming smile.

The official has no reaction. "You can't charm me. And no we can't help who we fall for. But are you saying you can't fall for them as well."

Hotch stops pacing. He takes a moment. "I can fall for them. Prentiss and JJ. Yeah I can fall for them. Maybe Garcia, although that's way down on the list for both of us in terms of popular partners. And the slash thing, that's something that you have to work a little harder for, but we can see it."

Hotch walks behind one of the chairs and grabbed the back of it. "We would never use people, just to use them. There would have to be something more going on. A latent attraction, a desire to help, something. We are not a one-night-stand kind of guy. It goes against who we are as a person. We are way too old-fashioned to do that. It just wouldn't happen."

"Like you said before, you are a guy. Guys get urges. It's a hard thing to fight."

"That's an excuse. You can fight it. You can beat it."

Hotch looks down at the floor. "Chasing the one we love away … We _are_ a little self destructive. So we might do this, but again we don't hold the monopoly on this. Why should we be the only one portrayed this way? We don't think we are a saint. And we might do some of these things. But we want to remind you that so would all of the other members of the team. Why is it always us, why not someone else? So the next time you need a villain in one of your romantic stories, try Prentiss, or JJ, or Morgan, or Rossi? Which speaking off, how did Rossi not get cast in this role? The guy's been married three times, had to have the FBI change the fraternization rules. How did he not get cast as the bad guy?"

"One thing you didn't deal with was Kate Joyner? It's implied that there was a possible affair between the two of you. You were in a relationship with Haley from High School until the two of you separated in the third season. What's the story there?"

That stops Hotch short. "Yeahhh. The writers of the show never said one way or another. And outside of my reactions after the bomb, and her subsequent death there is no indication that anything happened. Death is hard for anyone. It sucks almost as much to lose a friend as it does to lose a lover. Prentiss reacted badly to the detective that got shot, and she had only known him for a short period of time. The thing with Kate could easily be portrayed the one that got away. We like to think that's what happened. She looks like Haley's twin, and if we hadn't been married it could have been great. And maybe during the case something happened or plans were made for after, but her death cut it all short."

Hotch turns and walks towards the door. "We are not a bad person, and it's not cool that we are the only one who is portrayed that way. Others should be portrayed that way too. So please tell all your authors next time to do all of us a favor and cast someone else as the villain. Thank you."

A/N So hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you thought.


End file.
